Kys, klap og kommers is a loud, messy silent movie that I actually enjoyed

I think you should watch Kys, klap og kommers if you have a soft spot for people falling over for no reason. It is a 1929 silent film that feels like it was filmed during a very long, very loud party.

If you hate old-fashioned slapstick or movies where the plot is basically a suggestion, you will probably loathe this. It is definitely not a serious piece of art like Metropolis, which came out around the same time.

The whole thing is about a theater troupe. They are traveling around and everything that can go wrong, does go wrong.

The title basically means "Kisses, slaps and hullabaloo." Honestly, that is a very honest description of what happens on screen.

The big draw here is Carl Schenstrøm and Harald Madsen. Most people know them as Pat and Patachon, the tall skinny guy and the short round guy.

They have this chemistry that feels lived-in. Like they have been annoying each other for twenty years and finally decided to get paid for it.

There is one scene where the theater stage is just total chaos. People are running in and out of doors and I’m pretty sure one of the extras actually looked confused about where they were supposed to stand.

It’s those little moments that make me like these old Danish films. You can see the seams in the production.

The lighting in the indoor shots is a bit muddy. Sometimes it’s hard to tell who is kissing who, but maybe that’s the point?

There is a lot of shoving. I noticed that 1920s comedy involves a lot more aggressive pushing than we see today.

Kai Holm is in this too, looking very young and very earnest. He tries to keep the plot moving, but the movie keeps getting distracted by the physical gags.

I found myself wondering about the costumes. They look like they were pulled out of a dusty bin ten minutes before the camera started rolling.

The pacing gets a bit slow in the middle. There is a sequence with a lot of talking—which is funny because it is a silent movie—and the intertitles can't quite keep up with the energy.

It reminded me a little bit of Konkurrencen in the way it handles the local Danish vibes. It feels very specific to a time and place that doesn't exist anymore.

One guy, Henry Nielsen, has a face that just looks funny even when he isn't doing anything. He has these wide eyes that make him look like he just saw a ghost in the catering tent.

The romance side of things is pretty thin. It’s the kind of movie where two people look at each other for three seconds and then they are deeply in love forever.

I actually laughed out loud when one character got hit with a prop. It looked like it actually hurt, which is the best kind of silent comedy mistake.

Is it a masterpiece? No, absolutely not.

But it has this weird, frantic energy that kept me watching even when I didn't know what was happening. It feels like a bunch of friends decided to make a movie and someone accidentally left the camera on.

You can tell they were having a good time. Sometimes that matters more than a tight script or fancy sets.

If you've seen things like The Purple Mask, you might find this a bit more grounded, even with all the falling down. It’s just... pleasant.

I’ll probably forget the names of the characters by tomorrow. But I’ll remember the way the tall guy tried to fit into that tiny chair.

Things I noticed:

• The makeup on the women is incredibly heavy, even for the 20s.
• There is a dog in one scene that looks very bored with the whole production.
• The outdoor shots of the Danish countryside are actually quite pretty.
• I'm pretty sure someone loses a hat in the background of a shot and just leaves it there.

It’s a good one to put on if you want to turn your brain off. Just don't expect it to change your life or anything like that.

Just a bunch of kisses, a few slaps, and a whole lot of hullabaloo.